The cone flowers are fading fast but every now and then you find one with a little spirit left in it. I liked the movement in the petals on this one and the colorful blur in the background. This was shot with my new Lensbaby lens, the sol45 and one extension tube. In post I adjusted the exposure and added a high pass filter.
Most of the flowers around here are starting to sag in the heat but the Blanket flowers are still going strong. I just got another new lensbaby lens so I took a walk over the the Talent pollinator garden which is where I found these blanket flowers. It also has some little plastic blades with holes in them that create a textured background but it is a challenge keeping the focus in the right place. I like the soft blur of the other flowers without texture though. All I did in post processing was add a high pass filter.
I took a lot of photos today and very few of them were of flowers. None of them have been uploaded to the computer and I am very tired from driving down the coast from Bandon to Brookings and then home. So, I decided to do a quick and dirty from my last session with sunflowers. I really liked this one for the shape and texture of the petals and the soft blur of the Sweet50 but I thought it might be too much blur the first time around. But I decided to go with and then I added a texture which I thought I would not like but it added just that certain je ne sais quoi that it needed and I love it. I just made a new resolution to print something new to take down to the market each week so this may be the first!
Ever since I started this project I have been jonesing to get over to Shore Acres park to photograph flowers. So, I looked at my calendar this week and decided the time had come and getting out of the smoke would be an added bonus. But as usual I was a little disappointed in the gardens. They are so intent on keeping people out of the flower beds it has gotten to where you need a telephoto lens to take any good pictures. There was another photographer there reaming out the gardeners which I thought was not going to help anyone. But seriously, they are ephemeral, there are supposed to be there for our enjoyment, why not let people get close enough to smell them or take macro pictures or whatever their desire. Anyway, they were less stingy with the cosmos than the dahlias and I was pretty happy with this shot though I did use my 70-200mm telephoto zoom set at f2.8. About as usual on post, tweaked the exposure, added a high pass filter and cropped a little on the left to take out the center of another flower that was a bit distracting.
I used to think Irises were my favorite flower but I’m coming around to thinking Dahlia’s may have the edge. There is so much variety in color and shape and texture. What’s not to love. Yesterday on the way home from North Mountain Park I swung by the nursery and picked up a couple of plants to practice on, including this beautiful Dahlia. This morning I was experimenting with the Sweet 50 lens on the Canon M3 with extension tubes. I think this one had the medium extension on it. The challenge of this lens is getting that sweet spot exactly where you want it. In this case, I nailed it. One out of 30’s not bad, eh? Afterward I burned in the center to make it more visible and added a high pass filter.
I know we’re all tired of the smoke and it took me awhile to force myself out the door for a trip to North Mountain Park. But I have to say that the soft light created by the murky skies is really nice for flower photography. I just love the feeling of peace and all’s right with the world that I get from this one. It was shot with the 7D Mark II and a 180 mm macro lens. Minimal processing with a high pass filter and a little tweak to the exposure. I thought about putting texture on it but I didn’t want to mess up that beautiful soft blur.
I’m having a hard time getting excited about going out in the smoke to photograph. Hence one more from Vancouver. This one is from the rose garden in Stanley Park. I added a texture and vignette to soften the background but masked it out over the rose itself.
I made it to my Mother’s house but didn’t have time to do much photography. I did snap a few pix of here pretty little Calibrachoa in the front of the house. I was in the mood to try something a little painterly so put on a texture then ran it through Topaz Impression and dialed the opacity back to about 50%.
Truth is I have know idea what this flower’s proper name is. It is another one from the best residential garden in Canada. Yes, I’m still resting on my laurels. Actually, I have made a commitment to finish my family history book in time to have it printed to give as Christmas gifts. And Friday is my genealogy day. Eleven more families to scrapbook. One a week should do it. I promise I will take some new photographs tomorrow. Should be easy as I am visiting people with nice gardens. For processing I just tweaked the exposure a little, added a high pass filter and touched up some bruises and pollen on the flower.
I’m still trying to get my life caught up to normal so flower photography did not happen again today. I pulled this one from the Butchart Garden file. I just love the sense of motion in this one, almost like the flower is dancing. I did the usual tweaks with sharpening and exposure, added a vignette and a light texture to the background.